Snapchat Case Study

what is snapchat?

Snapchat is a photo/video-messaging app that started in 2011. You can take a photo or a short video, then decorate it with doodles, short captions, and filters. The resulting masterpiece (called a "snap") can be sent to your friends. Your friends can then open and watch the snap for a short amount of time before it "self-destructs". This is what makes Snapchat popular among teenagers and young adults.

creating a persona

To keep our design goal consistent throughout the process, I created a persona that represents the users troubled by the app. This ideal persona should be a young adult with little or no experience using Snapchat.

Ericka is a hard-working associate feeling the need for a better work-life balance. Because of her busy schedule, she relies heavily on social media to keep up with her friends. She wishes to be able to keep up-to-date with her friends through an app that is quick and easy to use. She needs something that lets her reach out to all her friends at once during her short breaks at work.

simulating User Flow

Placing myself in Ericka's shoes, I can check out how users such as herself might use Snapchat.

Looking at the user flow I created for Ericka, I can see that it could become time consuming if Ericka decides to send a snap to all of her friends. This goes against Ericka's needs and should definitely be addressed for users like her.

challenges faced by new users

Even though Snapchat quickly became popular, it has trouble attracting adults in their late-20s. As an adult just entering my late-20s, I understand why that might be so. I am a regular user of Snapchat, but I still find navigating across the app a very frustrating experience.

Similar to what I discovered through the user flow, another issue I face using the app is I often find myself spending too much time selecting whom I want to send my snap to. To send a snap to multiple friends, I must select each friend one by one from the list.

wireframe: laying down the foundation

Once I have a good idea on how young adults like Ericka might use the app, I can start to put the pieces together. Before I start making things look pretty, I need to lay down the foundation. You can't paint the walls of a house if there is no house to start with!

Stories Page

Stories Page Options Menu Opened

Discover Page

Tile blocks of advertisements and Snapchat sponsored articles.

Camera Screen

This is where you use your phone's camera to capture a snap.

Camera Screen Options Opened

You can adjust the camera's basic setting such as switching between front and back camera, and even adjusting flash mode.

Captured Snap Screen

Once you take a snap, you can add stickers and draw on it to customize it to your liking.

Selecting Recipients

Once you have completed your masterpiece, you can select which friends you want to send the snap to in this screen.

Recipient Screen Options Opened

Besides choosing to whom you want to send your snap to, you can also manage your friends and "Groupies" through the options menu.

Selecting Your Friends

Having a check mark next to a friend's name means that friend will receive the snap you are about to send.

Groupies Make Things Easier

Imagine how many taps you have to do to send a snap to all your friends. "Groupies" eliminates that pain by letting you create groups for your many groups of friends. One tap is all it takes to send your snaps!

Managing Groupies

You can make one-time adjustments to your Groupies by going into the Groupies option screen. To not send this awesome snap you just took to that one friend you're currently mad at, you can simply uncheck him in the Groupies options screen without removing him from the Groupies (but if you want to, you can! ;]).

Chat Screen

Once you send out your snap, you'll be taken to the Chat screen. The Chat screen shows whether or not your friends have opened the snap yet.

With the wireframe I created, I was able to print them out on paper to create a simple prototype. The prototype allowed me to do quick user testing, helping me identify any potential issues with the design.

prettifying the layout

Once I had corrected any issues found during the basic testing with the paper prototype, it is time to paint the walls of the house. Because Snapchat is an existing product owned by Snap Inc., I made sure to follow their style guide when I designed the mock-up screens.

update: Snapchat introduces a group feature

In December 2016, Snapchat finally released a Group feature which lets you snap and chat with up to 16 friends. The new Group feature seems to be an expansion of the existing Chat feature; it includes an easy way to transition to individual chat with anyone within the Group, letting you tap on another member's name when they're active in the chat and jump into a one-on-one conversation.

The Snapchat-official Group features differs from my design in that aspect. Instead of designing the feature as an expansion of the Chat feature, I focused on the feature's flexibility.

ricky lui

product designer

lui.shun.hei@gmail.com

+1 626 384 7899

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